I was about to lose it all—my job, my health, and my sanity. The pressures of work were building to the point that I had written out my resignation letter, proof-read it, and translated it into a foreign language. All that was left to do was hand it in.
But I did something instead that saved everything.
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For those of you who know me, here is something you might not know. I LOVE flying. Yep, I love flying. I like taking off, landing, and I even like the crappy food. In fact, I sleep like a baby when I fly. I find the whole experience calming and relaxing.
But there’s one aspect of flying that took a little getting used to. And that was…
…turbulence. But a funny thing happened on one flight I took with my then 1 year old daguher. When we hit a patch of turbulence, my daughter started squealing and bouncing up and down. It seemed that turbulence had made the flight fun for her.
Well, since then turbulence and I have gotten along better. In fact, I just took a flight last week and we hit a rough patch of turbulence. Of course, we did this right as I was on my way to the bathroom.
So, I thought to myself. “Now what?”
The way I saw it, I had 2 choices: go back to my seat and wait it out, or enjoy the ride.
So, it is in life. Recently, I have been going through a particularly turbulent time. And there are turbulent times up ahead for me. But I have a choice. I can either sit back and whine about how hard things are for me, or I can enjoy the ride.
I’m choosing to enjoy the ride. In fact, it might just be fun. I have found that the times your life experiences turbulence are the times that can define you. They are the times that can shape who you are and who you will become.
Turbulence comes whether you want it to or not. It’s how you deal with it that makes the difference.
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This is by far one of the best lectures I’ve ever heard. Randy Pausch is a university professor with only 4-5 months left to live. In this lecture, Dr. Pausch teaches about achieving goals, your childhood dreams, and living life.
I watched this lecture from beginning to end, and I recommend all of you to take the time to do it as well. You won’t regret it.
Thanks to Michel Fortin who featured this video in his blog.
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Do what you love and the money will follow. Heard that before? It sounds like an old tired cliché. I wouldn’t blame you for rolling your eyes or being cynical when you hear it. Personally, I hate those kinds of sayings. The reason is that although it’s easy to say “do what you love and the money will follow” it’s another thing altogether to actually do it.
I should know. When I went to college, I took the route of money. I majored in something that I thought would bring me money hand over fist. Yes, I majored in…
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A lot of people are full of advice when you feel down. But what are you supposed to do when you feel happy? For the last few weeks, I’ve been riding pretty high and for no apparent reason. The question has started to become: I’m happy, so now what?
I believe that how we act when we’re happy can affect how we act when we’re not so happy. The mindset we cultivate in our lives can help us in times of sorrow and in times of happiness.
What I am doing now is simply this: enjoying the ride. The mindset I typically have is one that says, “this too shall pass”. Yes, I know I won’t be happy like this forever. But some people take this kind of thought and use it as a weapon that deflates happiness.
Just knowing you won’t be happy forever is not a reason to feel down about it. It’s simply a fact. And as most of you know, I believe that seeing reality objectively is a key to happiness.
So when I am feeling happy, I do enjoy it. I enjoy it as much as I can. By knowing it will pass, it makes me enjoy all the more. Generally, I love life. I love learning new things. And when I feel happy and satisfied, I keep in mind that the feeling will change.
But rather than being upset by it, I try to get as much out of it as I can. It’s like a vacation. You know you won’t stay there forever. So, you get as much out of it as you can.
The same goes for happiness. Get as much out of it as you can.
Tonight, I shall go out and celebrate life. And I’ll drink a toast to all of you, my readers…and wish you all the happiness you deserve. Enjoy your existence and relish the times when you are happy.
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Today, I am taking a “break” from this blog to celebrate my daughter’s fourth birthday.
Yep, the big F-O-U-R.
So, I am not going to be able to give you one of my usual posts. Instead, I want to ask each and every one of you to celebrate yourselves today. Do something, anything, that will put a smile on your face. Listen to your favorite song. Play a game. Whatever.
What did I do? I went out today and sang loudly (pretty loud, actually) on the street. That’s not the proper thing to do in South Korea (or anywhere that I can think of really), but I just couldn’t help myself. I was filled with life, and I just had to express it in song. I chose to sing Rob Thomas’ “Little Wonders”. The words just seem to hit home to me today.
As for birthdays, a birthday is a day when we should be celebrating our existence. My daughter certainly is. Kids are happy to be alive. They are carefree. But as adults, we tend to not care so much about our birthdays. We think we are just “getting old”. We can’t do much about getting older, but we can control how we get older. Shall we fight against the inevitable or celebrate the passage of time?
But birthday or no birthday, our existence is worth a celebration. Do something today to make you happy. And after you do it, please let me know (hey, I told you what I did). I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment below.
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Now, I’ve done it. Finally put a podcast together. And I think it’s worth the time and effort it took me to set it up. Today’s podcast is an interview with author and speaker Steve Harper. Steve is the author of The Ripple Effect. In this podcast, I talk with Steve about the real and tangible benefits of living selflessly. Listen as Steve and I talk about how ridding yourself of the “what’s in it for me” mentality can benefit you both personally, professionally, and (sometimes) financially.
The Benefits of Selflessness Pocast with Steve Harper [16:26m]:
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Picture this:
A coffee shop playing soft cool jazz. A whiff if cigarette fills the air. Men in black turtlenecks. Bohemian artists holding their spiral notebooks. They’re all waiting. Waiting to take their turn at the mike.
One by one they go up, effusing snappy poetic rhymes…some about love…some raging against the current political and social reality…and some just chilling out.
Amidst this scene, a man walks wearing a 3-piece suit, and looks like he is riding high on the corporate ladder. People don’t know him there. But in the corporate world, he is a high-riding VP of an insurance corporation. And before that, he was a big shot lawyer. And that’s EXACTLY what he looks like: a corporate executive.
The people are snickering, especially when he tells them his poem is entitled, “the Snow Man”. Now they’re humming Frosty the Snow Man with an undercurrent of hostility.
He steps up to the mike, and says…
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Monday was supposed to be the day that I sent out my annual best wishes for the New Year. You see, I lived in Korea so long that I still tend to celebrate the Lunar New Year as my new year’s day.
But the e-mail didn’t get sent out on time.
You see, the night before my 2 year old daughter spiked a high fever in the middle of the night. My wife and I were up till almost 6:00 am bringing the fever down. Needless to say, my schedule didn’t get back on track until right now.
Our daughter has had a febrile seizure in the past, and so we have to be extra careful when she gets sudden fevers to prevent another seizure (doctor says we’ll have to do this till she “outgrows” it at about 9 years old).
For those who don’t know about febrile seizures, let’s just say that the doctor says they’re not a problem to the long-term health of the child, but they are scary as hell to watch a child go through.
But seeing my daughter like that the other night reminded me of how easily the things we take for granted in life can be taken away. One day everything is fine, the next day…
…BAM…everything is upended.
It does happen that way to some people.
Every day I look for more ways to make people (and myself) money and make their businesses successful. And, to be honest, I love what I am doing and can get so totally engrossed in it that I do ignore things in my life that I should not ignore.
Not often…but we all do it from time to time.
I’ve never really subscribed to the whole “make money at all costs” theory, but sometimes we get so caught up in what we want to do that we lost sight of what we’re doing.
We lose sight of what’s really important and take the things that we have for granted.
But we can lose those things at any moment.
So, I think it’s a good idea to sometimes take stock of our lives…
…look at what we want to achieve and why we are doing it.
I am not saying that we should not go all out to achieve our professional goals or that we shouldn’t try to make as much money as humanly possible.
I am saying that every so often we should put our lives into prospective.
We should ever forget the reason why we do what we do. And we should not neglect the things that are really important because sometimes…
…by the time we get around to it, it just might be too late.
To your success,
Carlon Haas
P.S. My daughter is perfectly fine now and is back to running my wife and I ragged. Time to take her to “Uncle Steve”’s house again.
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Posted: February 1st, 2006
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Balance
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